It’s true whether it is people growing up in the same house or football teams hailing from the same state.

The bonds of a shared address are woven with jealousy, fear, redemption and yes, somewhere in there, love. Throw in tens of thousands of passionate fans and it gets even better.

To the younger brother there is nothing better, and I mean nothing, than knocking off the cocky, condescending big brother. And to the older party, there is nothing worse, absolutely nothing, than actually losing to that pesky, upstart little sibling.

Take a look at the 16 big brother-little brother matchups in 2016. Each features a Power 5 team and a non-Power FBS team from the same state. They’re ranked from the most-likely to the least-likely, historically speaking, that the smaller school can pull-off an upset.

What’s not included are games pitting FBS teams vs. FCS teams from the same state (i.e. Arizona State vs. Northern Arizona), or non-Power teams vs. fellow non-Power teams in the same state (i.e. Cincinnati vs. Miami OH).

No two teams have met more times on our list than TCU and SMU, clashing 94 times since 1915. Though 80% of these games were played before the Southwest Conference disbanded in 1996, the two schools have met 19 times since, keeping the cross-town rivalry current.

The Horned Frogs haven’t dropped a game to the Mustangs since 2011, one of only two losses in the last 10 meetings. The other came in 2005, also TCU’s most recent defeat at SMU.

The Aggies and Roadrunners are the only big brother-little brother in 2016 to have never met previously in football.

The matchup lands at No. 9 based on Texas A&M’s 82-27-3 (74.5%) all-time record vs. the current members of Conference USA. Each of the 27 total losses came to old-Southwest Conference foe Rice, who the Aggies haven’t fallen to since 1980. They’ve won 17 straight over the Owls since.

Baylor has won seven straight games over Rice, last losing in 1992 in Houston. The two schools have met four times since the Southwest Conference shut down in 1996, the Bears winning the last two (in 2015 and 2011) by an average of 39 points.

Tied with the Longhorns at the top is Ohio State, which has never lost to Bowling Green and is 32-1-0 all-time vs. the current MAC. The only such loss came all the way back in 1894, when the Buckeyes fell to Akron.

Ohio State and Bowling Green’s short series didn’t kick off until 1992 and was last played in 2006.

Comments (34)

If you watched the 2014 Georgia Southern @ Georgia Tech game or better yet, if you attended the game, then you would know the ACC referees took the game out of the players hands with a terrible reversal of an ON THE FIELD call (requires indisputable evidence…it’s still being disputed). Georgia Southern was the better team that day and still has the more dynamic roster. Thank you Paul Johnson and the Tech AD for not being scared (UGAg) and rescheduling the Eagles…GS won’t leave it in question this go around. It would be great for the state if GS and Tech continued to schedule a game (maybe a H&H once Paulson Stadium is expanded to 30k) every other year. Athletically, as of late, the two schools are closer to peers than big brother-little brother.

Interesting that 5 of those 6 times were when Georgia Southern had 63 scholarships. The 6th game was a carry over from GS’s FCS days and Georgia elected to move the game from 2016 to 2015 probably because they didn’t want an additional year of FBS recruiting for GS. Georgia was gifted that win last year and every dawg fan knows it. For both parties, it is understood that Georgia no longer wants any part in scheduling GS and frankly that’s fine by me.

Don’t worry Kevin Kelly, that’s just GS non-sense talk. They told GSU that they’d never beat GS – but in the just the second meeting (last year) GSU gave them their worst defeat in the history of Paulson High School County Stadium, The glory days of GS are behind them. The newsflash to GS is that they are the #4 team in the state of Georgia and they think that they are #1.

Georgia Southern’s coach was on his way out and focused on a million dollar salary…way to go. How’d that bowl game work out for the mighty Panthers? Let’s compare some numbers for a minute…17-53 (129th in FBS) vs. 375-200-10 (14th in FBS)…0 D1 National Championships vs. 6 D1 National Championships (most all-time)…0 D1 Conference Titles vs. 11 D1 Conference Titles. WHEW! I can certainly understand why a Panther fan (those exist?) would cling like hell to that win against Georgia Southern! Run along now, let us men get back to it.

GS has never beat UGA – GS has never beat GT – GS is 50/50 against GSU. So your excuse is that GS got pounded at home by GSU cause your coach was dreaming about a real job? Really? That’s all it took for the mighty Beagles to lose at home? A coach’s daydream? All that tripe that GS spews about GSU and you got pounded in just the second effing year by a five year old football team? Fact is that Richt got fired because he almost lost to GS so that should tell you about how little respect there is for the GS product. So maybe GS needs to realize that they may start to fall behind KSU or Mercer. You guys have such an incredible false sense of entitlement from all those Pee-Wee league trophies. Probably ought to go on back to FCS Pee-Wee league! How about that Capt GAyTAy?

The Real GSU has played UGA and GT once with equal scholarships. Do you understand that having 22 less scholarships is a disadvantage? Once the playing field was made even, the Real GSU lost by a combined 10 points in their first outings with 85 scholarships. Again, I appreciate GT rescheduling the Real GSU unlike UGAg (I bet you’re a UGAg fan before a GAy St fan). Do you understand that when a head coach does not prep their team for a game that the team is unprepared? Big concepts here. Do you have any facts or just opinions? Richt was on the hot seat at the start of that season and the season before that…try to keep up. The fact that you recognize KSU and Mercer says a lot about where you view GAy St. Pee-Wee trophies…you’re talking about Division 1 National Championships. Do you understand that prior to the College Football Playoff, the FCS Playoff was the highest form of a college football playoff in existence? Oh but computers picking two teams worked out every time. The Real GSU should go back to FCS? You mean the Real GSU with the 18-7 FBS record (.720)? How about GAy St with the 7-30 FBS record (.189). This is too easy man, c’mon. (A) Why would GAy St field a football team and (B) why would ANYONE be a fan???? LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!

good article ….but i would say Georgia Southern has a much better chance of beating Georgia Tech than many of the games you have ranked as more likely. I don’t think very many people would be surprised is Georgia Southern wins that game.

BYU is considered by some to be a P5 “for scheduling purposes.” But we’re not actually a P5, since we don’t belong to a P5 conference. That’s why it’s so important for us to get into the Big XII…the fate and viability of our football program rests on it. If we don’t get in and become an actual P5, our future looks no better than that of New Mexico State.

When they say little brother, I think they actually mean LITTLE BROTHER! Auburn is not a little brother to Bama, same conference, same league, Auburn has done their fair share of butt whooping on Bama in the past. If that was the case then the article would have Michigan vs Michigan St.